I have a Sky satalite connection in my apartment and need to get a box to receive English channels.  However never having been involved in any more than plugging into the UK electricityI have no idea what a ‘Free to Air receiver’ is, nor a ‘Freesat Receiver’, nor a Sky receiver.  Can anyone tell me what the difference is?  Its not going to be used very often.

Hi,

There are three types of satellite tv channels:

free to air (FTA) - that are transmitted in the clear, with no encryption and require no viewing card and no subscription - examples being BBC1,2,3,4 - yes dispite what some installers say, you have not needed a viewing card for BBC channels for over 7 years!!!

free to view (FTV) - that are transmitted with encryption and require a viewing card BUT NO subscription (freesatfromsky card) - examples being Five USA and Fiver. With a free to view card you shodl be able to receive some ITV1 regions on a small 80cm dish, where as the FTA ITV1 regions may require a much bigger satellite dish - up to 2.4m in some areas of Spain)

subscription - that are transmitted with encryption and require a viewing card and a subscription - examples being Sky One and Sky Sports.

A free to air receiver will only receive the free to air channels. Generic (ie non Freesat or SKy) receivers tend to have a limited programme guide - and only have “now and Next” programme information.

A Freesat receiver is basically a free to air receiver, but uses the Freesat data and software and allows for a 7 day programme guide and interactive menu options.

A Sky box with no viewing card will also get the same channels as a Freesat receiver and with an 7 day programme guide.
A Sky box with a Freesatfromsky viewing card will also get the same channels as a Freesat receiver, and the FTV channel like Fiver and Five USA and with an 7 day programme guide.

Do not confuse Freesat or free to view channels with Freeview.
Freeview is a terrestrial UK TV service, that provides UK TV via a TV aerial. You cannot receive Freeview in Spain, even if some installers use the Freeview name in advertising. Some of the channels on Freeview are available for free via satellite, others like Dave are subscription on satellite. Spain has its own version of Freeview, called TDT, which allows for 30-40 digital Spanish channels. There are NO English / UK channels on TDT, but in many cases when there is a UK or USA imported programme you are able to change the audio soundtrack to the programmes original English soundtrack.

Hope this helps